Word of the Day Drabbles
by StoicStella
Summary: These are Drabbles written for the Merriam Websters official word of the day according to their online dictionary. Various pairings and characters are featured.
1. Prestidigitation

**Word of the Day:** Prestidigitation  
**Meaning:** Sleight of hand  
**Characters:** Snape and Dumbledore  
**Word count:** 100

All the years Snape had spent at the helms of the subtle science and exact art of potion-making, it was a shame that his final act of glory turned out to be little more than prestidigitation. To be used as a tool was something he was used to, after a decade or two in the service of dual masters, it didn't even sting anymore... but after all he had been asked to sacrifice it would have been a lot more fitting had his last mortal service involved bottling glory or stoppering death.

" I will do as you require, Headmaster."


	2. Prestidigitation 2

**Word of the Day:** Prestidigitation  
**Meaning: **Sleight of hand  
**Characters:** Remus Lupin  
**Word count:** 100

Sleight of hand: The ability to make one believe what you would have them believe, simply because seeing is believing, is a subtle magic all its own. One Remus Lupin could have sworn he had mastered all those years ago when he made friends, became a prefect and kept the monster at bay 353 days out of the year... but that was not enough.

Looking in the mirror one last time before facing the wizengamot and his impending hearing, he murmured "Nothing up my sleeves" applying his smile like a mask. Afterall his demons hid in a different place entirely.


	3. Antics

**Word of the Day:** Antics  
**Meaning: **an attention-drawing often wildly playful or funny act or action  
**Characters:** Molly and the twins  
**Words:** 100

The shelves on every wall of this bustling shop were lined with products "designed" under duress by her sons. Every single product, and every single galleon ever made on their idea's was something achieved through actions she actively tried to prevent from ever being made possible. The end result didn't matter when she thwarted one antic with equal fervor as another, and even now that she saw how successful they had become, without OWLs or NEWTs, or anyone's real approval, Molly was not sure if she felt she was ever in the wrong about the danger of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.


	4. Confidant

**Word of the Day:** Confidant  
**Meaning: **one to whom secrets are entrusted  
**Characters:** Mcgonagall and hints of Dumbledore  
**Words:** 100

Dumbledore had passed the vile full of wispy white not quite liquid to his deputy headmistress almost nonchalantly.

"Keep this safe" he declared, the unspoken: _'lives depend on it,'_ was always understood, but when she began to sort through the things left in her care after he was gone she wondered if she would ever have the nerve to place it in the pensieve. She had been second in the order, the headmaster's right hand, and his most trusted confidant, but she was not Dumbledore, and the lives in the balance were sometimes too heavy a burden to bare.


	5. Diatribe

**Word of the Day:** diatribe  
**Meaning:**  
1 : a bitter and abusive speech or writing  
2 : ironical or satirical criticism  
**Characters:** (teenage) Lupin and Snape  
**Words:** 100

"And if Slughorn doesn't like it he can... can" Severus' breath caught in his throat, putting an end to the diatribe mid-sentence. Usually pale skin tinged pink, and previously narrowed black eyes sprung open in shock. For a second his face seemed to school outrage to return: forcing eyebrows to lower, and mouth to form what he hoped was a scowl. Not that it mattered what his face looked like since the annoying Gryffindor was now behind him, hands on his shoulders, breath in his ear and massaging fingers methodically guiding his hair away from his neck. Fighting seemed silly.


	6. Diatribe 2

**Word of the Day:** diatribe  
**Meaning:**  
1 : a bitter and abusive speech or writing  
2 : ironical or satirical criticism  
**Characters:** Remus Lupin  
**Words:** 100

To become flustered was dangerous. To speak out, to stand out, to make a spectacle, served no noble purpose. In the long run, Lupin would rather be considered a coward without ever having a stirring diatribe attributed to him, than to be the martyr under the ministry's ax.

Every morning he told himself this uncurling from the fetal position protecting his own warmth, he repeated it at breakfast around the fire, and asserted it once more every time one of their number did not return from wizard territory. He had a mission... and it didn't involve bringing attention to himself.


	7. Pomaceous

**Word of the Day:** pomaceous  
**Meaning:  
**1 : of or relating to apples  
2 : resembling a pome **  
Characters:** Snape and (whomever you have in mind)  
**Words:** 100

Black eyes, peered over a large book, to survey a pair of pale pink lips across the room that were devouring a pear almost wantonly. The book was one of mythology, a way of dealing with misfortune and longing by classifying blame.

In the garden of Eden there was a tree which grew forbidden fruit. Over the centuries the fruit had become pomaceous, a glistening red apple. That was palpable, people could see it in their minds eye... Eve took a bite of pome, red like an apple, like blood, like sin. Though it could easily have been a pear.


	8. Refulgence

**Word of the Day:** refulgence  
**Meaning: **a radiant or resplendent quality or state : brilliance  
**Characters:** Snape and Harry  
**Word count:** 100  
**Notes:** A bit choppy I think. 100 words was being elusive for this one. I was so tempted to join thoughts and go over. But it's no fun if you cheat ;)

Outside, instead of reflecting rays from the sun Snape's pale skin could absorb them like black cotton, heating him in all the wrong ways, forcing anger to crop where he would rather have dispassion. Though the darkness in his soul required more than a whispered lumos to disperse, in the windowless dungeons Severus felt ethereal like a moon. He didn't know why Potter spoke when they suddenly came eye to eye there

"Eyes like fathomless tunnels... I used to think. I understand the light at the end, though, now... It's brilliant"

"Utter bullshit" Snape said aloud, quickening his pace exceptionally.


	9. Refulgence 2

**Word of the Day:** refulgence  
**Meaning: **a radiant or resplendent quality or state : brilliance  
**Characters: **Lupin and hints of snape**  
Word count: **100

When Remus looked into a certain pair of hard black eyes, his insides caught on fire. It was not refulgent, like the sun: some constant explosion millions of miles away. It was close up and constant, without a cycle or a pull. It neither held some hidden wonder and beauty nor flickered inside him with a light that made his wanting more noble. It scorched him with a heat that didn't matter in any deep emotional way, it was both dark and feral and all the same satisfying. Which, Lupin supposed was resplendent in it's own way, for a werewolf.


	10. Sleuth

**Word of the Day:** sleuth  
**Meaning: **detective  
**Characters:** Lupin and Snape  
**Words:** 100

"You had to be a detective didn't you?" Snape sounded as though he couldn't have been more exhausted.

"I didn't believe you were a traitor," Lupin put in hopefully.

"and are you satisfied?" He sneered, "Have you seen what you came to see? How did you think this would be productive?"

"I don't know…" Lupin admitted, leaning his arms on the bars of the cell so he would no longer have to face Severus' wrath "I guess I didn't think…"

"That much is obvious," Severus finished for him, leaning on the opposite wall.

"Sorry." Remus offered, but Severus remained impassive.


	11. telegraphese

**Word of the Day:** telegraphese  
**Meaning: **language characterized by the terseness and ellipses that are common in telegrams **  
Characters:** Lupin and Snape  
**Words:** 100

"Took three instead" Muttered Remus, trying to keep his hands busy with his own potion ingredients so he would not have to look in the direction of his potions partner.

"Did you?" Severus responded tersely, glancing at the Gryfindor only minutely, but not pausing in his own preparations.

"Had one." Remus signified, his little smile going unnoticed as neither looked at the other for the moment.

"I see" was severus' only response as he tipped his now prepared ingredients into the cauldron between them.

"Thank you for..." Remus began, looking at the table, but Severus cut him off.

"Forget it,"


	12. Tintinnabulation

**Word of the Day:** tintinnabulation  
**Meaning:  
**1 : the ringing or sounding of bells  
2 : a jingling or tinkling sound as if of bells  
**Characters:** Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger  
**Words:** 100

Luna was looking up at the large bronze bell above their heads, her hair moving slightly from the force of the vibrations, and a slight smile gracing her lips.

"Tintinnabulation?" She asked letting her fingers entwine with those of the girl at her side.

"It's Latin" her bushy haired companion replied.

Luna's slight smile broke into an outright grin as she pulled their combined hands to a spot just below her left breast. She felt the vibrations of the bell combined with her heartbeat twittering beneath her own fingers as they pressed those belonging to the other girl.

"Like magic!"


End file.
